In August 2004, two young lovers took their backpacks and followed their dreams on a sunny journey through Australia. Their plan is simple, have new experiences, make new friends, and create new memories. But what they don't know is that only one of them can come back!
In 2004, one of those who traveled in Australia was Simone Strobel, a girl born on September 20, 1979 in Reading, Germany, a small city not far from Woodsburg, where her relatives liked to call him Simon, a person who liked to play outdoors and traveled everywhere. Simone is a 25-year-old teacher who has a good boyfriend, Tobias, who is a year younger than him, they met as teenagers and are said to have fallen in love at first sight, and Simone is even considered to be, the second daughter of Tobias's parents. Family and friends, describe their relationship very well. Tobias and Simone also share a common dream, like many of us young people, to travel everywhere.
By all chance, they planned to start their new journey in August 2004. After saying goodbye to family and friends, they began a 30-hour flight to Australia. Once landed, they rented a van in Sydney and began exploring the country, doing odd jobs on nearby farms and plantations to help with economic problems along the way. Although they play everywhere, Simone is constantly in touch with his family, who tells them every day where he has been every day, and it can be seen from the photos that he is enjoying the best time of his life. At first, the journey seemed to be without problems and everything was going according to plan, but four months later, in January 2005, they headed north to Brisbane, during which time things may have changed when Tobias's sister Catlin and a mutual friend Jens arrived in Australia from Germany.
Although reluctant, Simon could only accept it, and the trip between the two became 4 people. On February 11, they drove from Queensland to Lismore Central Park, New South Wales. They plan to pitch a tent here and live for days, with Tobias and Simone sleeping in their own caravan while the other two are next to them. The four of them will spend a few days here over the next three days, and at this point in time, they seem relaxed enough to make friends with all the other campers. In the evening, they decided to go to a local tavern called the Hotel Göran. Unfortunately, alcohol seemed to be the trigger for their future, and a fierce quarrel broke out between them, and the intensity of the quarrel became more and more serious. In the end, even the bar staff had to get involved and even drove the 4 of them away.
To Tobias, who had just ordered a beer and was thrown out, he was clearly angry about it, Tobias and Simona seemed to be arguing about something, and soon after, both Catlin and Jens, both seemed to be on his brother's side. From the available footage, this is the last time Simone appears, and just two hours later, he disappears silently. According to others, the four of them then decided to return to the camp, but despite the long distance and time passed, it did not seem to improve their situation and their clashes continued to erupt in the caravan camp. After a more intense argument, Simone walked out of the camp to try to calm down, which might be a better solution. But he left his phone and shoes behind when he left, maybe it's understandable without a mobile phone, but he doesn't even wear shoes, which is a bit unreasonable.
Simone disappeared for 7 hours, they knew something was wrong, why did they leave without shoes for 7 hours? They also grew increasingly concerned and eventually searched the entire camp to ask if anyone had seen him, but unfortunately, no one saw him at all, and after one witness said that after Simona disappeared, it seemed that only Catlin was looking for him. While Tobias sat idly in the camp, another witness said that in the middle of the night, he heard the group arguing loudly, and after a moment of thought, Tobias decided to call Simone's parents and tell them that Simona was missing. Simone's parents tried to get to the bottom of the matter, they asked Tobias if you had an argument, but strangely Tobias said no, in hindsight, it was very suspicious, the family was very worried about their daughter, brother Alexander immediately booked the next flight to Australia to help find his missing sister, and the family had a very bad feeling about it.
By the third day, there was still no trace of him, so the NSW Police decided that it was finally time to investigate further! They sent most of the local police to search, and on February 17, six days after his disappearance, they found a body that was already in a state of gradual decomposition due to the tropical and humid climate, but after taking a DNA sample, he was confirmed to be that of Simone Strobel. Because of his body, he was found just 100 meters from the camp. He was naked and covered with palm leaves, and authorities investigating the scene believed he had died of suffocation, possibly by a pillow or plastic bag! Strangely, there are no signs of struggle or fighting at the scene, nor any signs of robbery or sexual assault, so according to the situation at the scene, the police first ruled out the possibility of robbery, and it will not be robbery! So who is the murderer?
The local population did not even want to believe that such a horrific murder would take place in their area, and on February 22, next to the crime scene, the local community held a vigil, Katrin, Tobias. and Simone's younger brother Alexander. With hundreds of residents of the Lismore community. They attended the event and held a ceremony in Woodsburg to honor Simone. After that, the fluctuations and pain caused by Simone's death began to subside. But there are no concrete results! After a few months, the authorities still had no leads, and later that year, private investigators in Germany decided to fly to Australia to assist the local police. But even after more than a dozen interrogations, no new leads were found, perhaps not surprising, and it is strange that even in his own conversations with the police, Tobias denied any quarrels with Simone. In the months that followed, Tobias disappeared, and we all know that everyone handles grief differently, but if you're in Tobias's position, don't you want your girlfriend's murder to be solved?
So you'll be as cooperative as possible to help catch the murderer, which is also a good reason. Considering the surveillance footage, the story of the quarrel with the camp, and now his complete disappearance, he refused to cooperate with the police in the investigation. The police suspect that something happened between Simone and Tobias, and the two seem to have had an argument, which ended in an argument. In the midst of these quarrels, it was clear that Tobias was very angry, and although all the facts pointed to Tobias, the police had no useful practical evidence, and the road to justice was long and difficult for the victim's family. One case analyst believes that perhaps more than one person was involved, because of Simone's body, there is no indication that he has tried to protect himself. Although Tobias and Catlin continue to remain silent, over time, Simone's murder ends up in the category of unsolved cases.
As late as 2014, nine years after his death, the Bavarian Criminal Investigation Office announced a $10,000 reward for any information that would lead to an arrest and conviction! Six years later, on October 15, 2020, the Australian authorities raised the bounty, announcing a reward of $1 million, even though Simone's dream of living in Australia had gone with him. But it seems that by 2020, Tobias has got what he wants, he moved to Perth, found a new partner, changed his name, got married and had children. If Tobias is innocent, he should indeed move on with his life, especially after 17 years, but according to investigators, that doesn't seem to be the case. Because on July 26, 2022, the world of Tobias changed!
At this point, the police had enough evidence and issued an arrest warrant. Tobias, 42, was arrested at his home in Perth awaiting extradition to New South Wales, where he will then face court proceedings in Sydney where he is charged with murder and attempted obstruction of justice! Arrest warrants were also issued against Catlin and Yans, accusing them of being accessories to the crime after the cover-up. Back at the crime scene, in fact, the police found a blonde hair at the scene, but in 2005, DNA testing was not as advanced as it is now, although the police did not confirm whether this hair caused Tobias's arrest, but at least the media highly speculated about the circumstances of the crime, when, after their heated argument, Tobias strangled Simone in a van, and then, with the assistance of another person, took off his clothes and dragged him into the outback.
To this day, Tobias denies involvement in the murder and says the police have no evidence. During the investigation, one of the grapevines said that one of them claimed that Simon was murdered by him, but after a detailed police investigation, it was found that this person was actually just bragging to attract everyone's attention, and he was not at the scene at the time of the crime.
Back to this case, although the case is still in the judicial process, the golden hair found at the scene obviously fell from Tobias, and the DNA testing technology in 2005 was immature, but today, 17 years later, I believe that a conclusion can be drawn soon, maybe Tobias is really innocent as he said, maybe the real murderer is him, but in any case, the investigation that lasted for 17 years will eventually have a result! So, do you think Simone was murdered by these three people, or is it someone else?
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